Media centre

Tuesday 23 Oct 2018

West Yorkshire gets the green light as Network Rail completes vital upgrade to the railway

Region & Route:

| Eastern

Network Rail has completed a vital upgrade to the signalling system in West Yorkshire as part of the Great North Rail Project.

Over the last three days, engineers from Network Rail have completed the final stage of the project, to upgrade the signalling system between Pudsey, Bradford, Halifax, Hebden Bridge, Huddersfield and Shepley.

The project has seen control of the signalling move from old-style, lineside mechanical signal boxes to a state of the art Rail Operating Centre in York, providing a more modern, reliable and cost-effective railway which will improve journeys for passengers not only in West Yorkshire, but across the whole of the North.

To allow the final stage of this work to take place, bus replacement services were in operation on Saturday, 20, Sunday, 21 and Monday, 22 October but today (Tuesday, 23 October) train services have resumed and are now running on a more modern railway.

Rob McIntosh, Route Managing Director for Network Rail, said: "Passengers across the North will start seeing the benefits of this upgrade today and will benefit from a more modern and reliable railway which will improve journeys.

"We’re delighted that the final stage of this vital upgrade is now complete and we’d like to thank passengers for their patience whilst this work took place. This project will ensure we can continue to meet the needs of the communities and economies which our railway serves."

This project follows on from an upgrade to the signaling between Huddersfield and Dewsbury, which completed in January.

ENDS